Alaska Airlines and American Airlines have been frenemies for several years now. In fact, it was American that sponsored Alaska into Oneworld. However, as American’s strategy (or lack thereof) continues to change, top Alaska elites will lose American systemwide upgrades.
For all of its life, Alaska has been kind of a regional airline. Yes, they fly throughout the U.S., but their dominance is primarily along the West Coast. That’s why we’ve seen American and Delta partner with Alaska in the past to help provide feed for one another’s operations. However, Delta decided that it wanted to take Alaska on directly and began building a hub in Seattle, nerfing that partnership. However, American remains an Alaska partner and, pre-Pandemic, strengthened their ties, eyeing a new international gateway in Seattle.
Alas, American’s new Seattle gateway never came to be and, to be honest, they began flailing more, without a coherent strategy to serve, well, anywhere. Add to that Alaska’s more aggressive stance as it acquired Virgin America and sought to grow aggressively, and the frenemies started becoming less friendly. Unfortunately, that means that some benefits are now unraveling, as top Alaska elites will lose American systemwide upgrades in the not-too-distant future.
Top Alaska Elites Will Lose American Systemwide Upgrades
In 2021, Alaska Air and American Air announced that top Alaska elites – MVP Gold 75k and 100k – would receive American Systemwide Upgrade vouchers for use on American international flights. Unfortunately, Alaska didn’t start issuing the vouchers until 2022. Ok, so technically, Alaska’s vouchers aren’t Systemwide Upgrades, but they operate in the same way.
For those of you that don’t know, Systemwide Upgrades on American allow you to upgrade any paid, mileage-earning eligible fare that isn’t a government or military fare, to upgrade your seat one class of service at the time of booking. That means a Systemwide Upgrade lets you do the following:
- 2-Class Domestic Flight: Main Cabin -> First Class
- 2-Class International: Main Cabin/Premium Economy -> Business Class
- 3-ClassFlight: Main Cabin -> Business Class OR Business Class – > First Class
Systemwide Upgrades are valid for flights of up to three segments operated on American metal, only. That said, they’re also valid on flights operated by British Airways, as long as one of your three segments is an American flight – but only for American vouchers; not those issued by Alaska Air.
For Alaska members, MVP Gold 75k and 100k are awarded these certificates (one one-way for 75k and two one-way for 100k) early in the calendar year. However, as reported by The Points Guy, this year’s award came with news that top Alaska elites will lose American Systemwide Upgrades next year, meaning the vouchers they received this year will be their last.
Being that I’m not an elite member, I didn’t receive this email. However, the email allegedly stated that the change was due to “member feedback.” Yeah, ok. Who the heck is going to say they want fewer benefits? In reality, this is happening because American is pulling back in Seattle and across the Pacific in general, reducing the utility of these vouchers for both airlines. Of course, Alaska’s aggressive growth, along with American’s inability to effectively compete, only adds to the reasons to end benefits like this.
Final Thoughts
It’s too bad that top Alaska elites will lose American systemwide upgrades. However, I hear the utility of these (limited) certificates isn’t great. Apparently, they’re issued late enough in the year (around April) that they can be difficult to use by the time they expire (at the end of the year in which they’re issued. Plus, with the way American has been pulling back, you might be better off just saving up miles to redeem with Oneworld partner airlines.
Of course, there’s the possibility that Alaska will begin “its own” international trans-Pacific if their acquisition of Hawaiian Airlines goes through.